Apple Music has started rolling out its lossless and hi-res audio offerings, and yes, even with my damaged ears, I can tell the difference, both at home and in the car. The most significant difference is in the drums. All the dynamics from CD-quality music are there. Loud drum hits are loud and not washed out as in lossy formats.

(For my ears, I’m always going to prefer CDs because I still love physical media.)

Drawbacks: If you’ve saved audio files from Apple Music on your device or computer, you’ll have to download them again to get the lossless or hi-res versions. Also, there are still quite a few albums not yet available in a lossless format. Another drawback: while lossless (CD-quality) audio should play over wired connections from your device, you’ll need an extra piece of equipment, an external DAC, to play the hi-res files.

So check the “music” settings on your Apple device. You’ve got options for what format you want if you stream from cell service or wi-fi, as well as specifying what format you want to download files in if that’s your bag.